Exceptions
by oh-the-linsanity
Summary: A young orphan working for the Agni Kai's as a mechanic gets tasked to build a remote for a job. In the process, she comes across a young officer named Mako. (Takes place in Episode 5, Peacekeepers)


Exceptions

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"Here, get to work."

The kid fumbled with the handful of scarps thrown into her arms. She looked up from her little desk situated in the corner of their out of the way slum of a shack where all great gangsters do their work. The Agni Kai member gave her a small sneer layered under an overall aura of disinterest. The girl dropped all the items on the desk with a clank, and started picking apart the metal scraps from the wires and the screws.

"Uhhh," she stuttered, reaching for her glasses resting on the top of her head. There was a small crack in the top left corner of one of the frames, but she pulled them down, settling them on the bridge of her nose. "Sure. Fine. No problem." The Agni Kai started to walk away with a nod, satisfied, but he doesn't even take two steps before the girl said, "But, uh, what do you want me _to do?"_

The man growled. "Don't you pay attention to anything, brat?"

From the other side of the room, a woman sighed, long and bored, propping her feet up on her much larger, fancier desk. "Oi, lighten up, Delun." The woman said. She fished out a cigarette from the pocket of her dress and stuck it between her teeth. "Jia's gonna make it, don't worry."

Delun snarled, teeth visible. He kicked at the leg of Jia's desk, startling her; she scrambled to grab a screw that started to roll off the desk. "She'd better. We got paid as out the ass to make sure this job was done. _Flawlessly." _Delun gave Jia a hard look. "So it'd better be a perfect remote, got it?"

Jia nodded, not looking at him, and got to work. He mumbled a few profanities under his breath before he stomped away, out the room and into the dark underbelly of the triad world.

After a few minutes of picking and prodding at the wires, and looking at all the other equipment of tools she had available, it became clear: she had no inkling of what she was supposed to build. "Um, Meili?"

The woman from the other side of the room grunted in affirmation and as Jia turned around to face her, she found her just as she last saw her, still playing with an unlit cigarette in her teeth. "I'm sorry, but, I really don't know what I'm supposed to be making."

"They didn't tell you to go to the meeting this morning?"

Jia shook her head no.

"Figures,"Meili said, and with one last sigh, she heaved herself off the chair and starts a slow walk over to Jia's desk. "They're all a bunch of idiots," she complained, grabbing a stray chair from the corner and turning it around. She saddled the seat backwards and finally lit the cigarette with the flick of her finger. "They don't like to admit it, but they need a few women around. Women like us. Ain't that right, baby girl?"

Jia smiled softly. She really liked Meili. The woman was cold and aloof, but never to her. She was always nice to Jia. And Jia wasn't entirely sure what the older woman did, but she often came back to the hideout in torn dresses and lipstick smudges on her face. And sometimes she came back smelling like ash, dressed in pants and suspenders, wads of cash in her pocket—and always smoking a cigarette. Meili had found Jia on the streets, saved her from the orphan, gave her a chance to do something. She wasn't a bender, but she was good at building, good at making. Meili told her she could build and fix stuff the Triads needed for jobs, cars, and weapons and stuff. Meili would make sure she'd get her money so she could buy her food and she slept in a little cot out of the way in one of the Agni Kai hideouts. So that was Jia's life. She built. She mended.

"So, a remote?" Jia asked, confused. "A remote for what?"

Meili blew out a smoke ring and Jia tried not to cough. "A bomb," she said. "Someone wants us to blow up somethin'." Meili must have noticed the fear and worry stitching into Jia's expression because she quickly remedied, "We ain't hurting anyone, just setting a building on fire."

"Why?"

Meili shrugged. "Why else? We got paid big time," Meili reached over and knocked on Jia's desk with her knuckles. "If you get this done in time, and done right, you'll get four times your normal salary."

Jia felt her eyes just about fall out of her skull. Four times her normal salary would let her buy those awesome dumplings from Narooks for a week, and still have cash to spare. "Who has that much money?" she wondered aloud.

"Some really rich sleaze from the Water Tribe." Meili exhaled slowly, smoke snaking from her nostrils. "It's all about framing, this one. You been hearin' about the tribal wars between the waterbenders, haven't you?"

Jia recalled that there was supposed to be a peacekeeping walk or something of the like downtown. "Yeah, it's in all the papers."

"Well, it's all a bunch of politics." Meili explained. "But we're supposed to make sure that this job looks like it was done by the North, not a bunch of firebenders. That's why we need the bomb. Waterbenders can't start a fire without a bomb, get it?"

Jia scrunched her face up. It was always like this working here. Revenge and framing and all the dirty in-betweens were so complicated, too complicated for her 12-year old mind. "Sounds like a mess." She told her.

Meli shrugged. "It's not our job to overthink it. We just gotta bomb the place—tonight."

The girl picked up a cluster of wires and dropped them unenthusiastically back on the desk. "I have to build this remote by _tonight?"_

"Mmhmm. Don't worry though," Meili nodded to the junk on the desk. "They've mostly built it, they just need you to fix it up, re-wire it. Should be easy."

Jia reached for a screwdriver in her tool box under the desk. "Then maybe _you_ can build it."

The older woman snickered and leaned over to press the flickering end of her cigarette into an ash tray on a side table. "You've got a couple of hours, don't sweat it, kid."

"You have _no _idea…" she trailed off, looking through the pile of things, in her drawers, the stack of papers in a box under the desk. "Where are the blueprints?"

"Huh?"

Jia frowned. "The blueprints, for the bombs? How am I supposed to know how to wire it up?"

"Oh," Meili got up from the chair, kicking it back to its place in the corner. "Yeah, I dunno. Bet Gui has 'em."

She did some quick calculations. "Gui's in the other hideout on the _other side of town." _

"Better get to it then. Time's runnin' out."

* * *

It was weird, working a job in broad daylight. Then again, she was never the one throwing flames or stealing like the others did—she just carried parts back and forth. All Jia had in her pocket were a few screws, a couple more wires, and two rolled up pieces of paper that were the original designs for the bomb and the remote. Hardly something that would draw attention. But just the fact that she knew she was doing something that would eventually be illegal was enough to make her hair stand on end.

It was only noon, if that, and the sun was pretty warm on her skin. The streets, normally bustling with folks shopping and working and whatnot, were strangely quiet. It wasn't until she was cutting through the heart of downtown did she notice why.

The whole block was being shut down for the peacekeepers walk for the Southern Water Tribe. The streets were being taped off, officers were getting ready to tell people to go elsewhere—in one corner, she already saw a small group clad in purple robes from the North who were no doubt prepared to protest the South. Not wanting to be around so many officers for obvious reasons, Jia scuttled over the side and lifted some of the yellow tape, intent on taking a shortcut before the officers came back and took their posts.

"Hey, you're not supposed to be here."

Jia froze. It seemed like there was an officer she hadn't spotted. She turned around slowly and her fear was matched with a cold stare, which immediately softened upon looking at her.

"O-oh," she stuttered. She had seen too many cops, too many close calls to be comfortable around them. "I'm…I'm sorry," she squeaked out. She stared at her feet.

She heard footsteps come her way and she flinched; he immediately stopped. "Hey," he whispered, and she was surprised at how soothing his tone was. Jia looked back up at him—he was smiling. "I'm not going to hurt you. See?" he pointed to the badge. "I'm an officer. I'm here to protect you."

Jia had enough evidence on the tip of her tongue to prove otherwise, but she held back. He kneeled down, still smiling. "Sorry about cutting through the tape. I was just trying to find a shortcut home. I didn't want to walk through all that." Jia explained softly.

The officer looked her over, smile smaller. "Home, huh?" Abruptly, he stood straight again and offered his hand. "Allow me to escort you, Miss—"

"Jia," she told him, staring at his hand. She did not take it. He quickly got the message, and retracted his hand, but it still looked like he wasn't going to leave.

"I meant what I said—you're not supposed to be here. No one is. So, how about you come with me before one of the older guys on the forces catches you? They aren't always too nice, " he looked over that way. "Believe me," he mumbled as an afterthought under his breath. He started walking to the other side, back with the officers and the tape and the open plaza where _everyone could see her. _Once again, Jia froze. "Well, come on," he urged, a smile gracing his lips once more.

Faced with what seemed like no other choice, Jia willed herself to follow the officer. Normally, as soon as he'd turn his back, she'd bolt, just like the Agni Kai's taught her, but she seemed to luck out with this officer. He was probably new, seeing how young he was—he looked a lot like her older brother used to, and he was about 18 when he died. And the officer was right; the older guys were a lot meaner than he was. So, Jia figured she'd just follow him like he told her to, and as soon as they were beyond the territory of police guard, then she'd book it back to the hideout. She just hoped it wouldn't take too long; she still had to make the remote.

But the officer took her right past the swing of things: there were a dozen cop cars, and three times that many officers. Over to the side, she noticed one of the Northern Water Tribe supporters already starting a scuffle, and two officers tackled him, tying his hands with metal cables.

Jia didn't know why she did it—she figured it was the combination of all the stress from the looming officers, the threat of being arrested, and even the thought of being singled out as an orphan and taken to the shelter, but all she knew was that she was 12 and scared and this young officer looked like her brother and he didn't seem like he would take her to an orphanage so…

Jia skipped ahead and walked alongside him, grabbing the hand he had offered her minutes ago.

The officer smiled and squeezed her fingers in return, and continued walking.

"Hey, Mako, what do you think you're doing?" Jia turned her head and almost yelped. That was no other than the head of police herself, Chief Beifong.

The young officer, named Mako, held up their joined hands. "I'm just escorting this young lady back to her home. She was in a restricted area."

"Hmm, fine," huffed Beifong. "But be quick. We need you on guard."

"Yes, Ma'am."

The two continued to walk hand in hand until they were out of the restricted zone and down in one of the shopping districts, the one closest to her hideout. "Thanks," Jia mumbled. "I can get there from here." She tried to wiggle out of his grasp, but he was strong.

Mako laughed and let go. "Alright there, you little tigerdillo. Just be careful. And no more crossing police tape, got it?"

Jia nodded, already running down the street. But curse her clumsy, shaky legs, and curse the bumpy sidewalk, her battered shoe got caught on an uneven part of the pavement, and Jia went spiraling to the ground, the contents of her pockets spilling out.

"Are you okay?" it was Mako, who had seen the whole thing. He came running and helped her to her feet, dusting off glasses and putting it back on her face. "You should be more careful." He smiled. Flustered, Jia nodded vigorously and started grabbing the wires and screws that had spilled, praying she'd gotten all of them. "Hey," Mako's tone was curious. "What's all this for?" He picked up one of the rolled up schematics, and started to unroll it. He'd only seen the top half of a remote before Jia snatched it from his unsuspecting hands.

"That's mine," she said, and she realized the tone was bitter, mean. "Sorry." she apologized. "It's just really important."

He nodded, like he understood. "What are you making?"

"Uhhhh…" she faltered. "Well….I-I….."

"You don't have to tell me." He handed her back the paper. "It's not an interrogation."

Jia nodded again and turned around, ready to go back running, praying she wouldn't fall again, when he blurted. "Whoa, whoa, wait a second."

Busted.

She was ready to cry, kick, scream, yell, do whatever it took to get away when he laid a hand on her shoulder, turned her around, and handed her a small card.

"There's my office number. If you're ever in trouble, you call me, okay?" he leaned down, looking left and right before he whispered, "I know I'm an officer of the law, but…orphans have to stick together."

How did he know? "Oh," Jia whispered, staring at the card. "Thank you."

He smiled. "No problem—as long as you stay out of major trouble, got it?" He fished through the other pocket and gave her a couple of copper pieces. "Go buy yourself a little food and meet up with your friends." At Jia's frozen nature, Mako chuckled. "I'm not tricking you. Really. Go on." She still didn't move. In a dramatic display, Mako rolled his eyes to the heavens. "It'd be a shame if I changed my mind…"

She ran—_fast._

He laughed.

* * *

"Hey! Stop! Republic City Police!"

The triads, dressed in red, piled in the car as Mako tried his best to stop the criminals, firing flames their way. One fell down, but picked himself off the ground quickly and joined the others in the car. And with a clatter, a remote control fell by his feet, the criminals speeding away.

Breath short, Mako picked up the remote—it looked familiar. It _looked _like that piece of paper—

"Aw, kid," Mako mumbled under his breath, pocketing the remote and heading back to finish his job. But minutes later as he found Korra yelling at him he couldn't help think that he could have prevented this whole mess, if he had seen her as a criminal, not a fellow orphan. Just because she was a kid, and just because she was in the exact same spot he was, doesn't mean she got to be excluded from the law. There was a reason why he was an officer. He had a duty to enforce the law—no one could be above it. Not an orphan girl, not another officer, not even the Avatar deserved an exception.

So he swore never again.

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fin

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**notes:** wow episode 5 was a doozy! I see a lot of people gettin' upset about Mako and his break up with Korra so I kind of wrote this fic as a means to elaborate on his actions and decisions, you know a little "in between the lines" moments (even though I personally don't see his actions needing justification. He only wants best for Korra and to keep her safe!) so yeah. I hope you enjoyed it~~


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